windows-itpro-docs/windows/client-management/mdm/applicationcontrol-csp.md

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ApplicationControl CSP	The ApplicationControl CSP allows you to manage multiple Windows Defender Application Control (WDAC) policies from an MDM server.	security, malware	dansimp	article	w10	windows	dansimp	jsuther1974	09/10/2020

ApplicationControl CSP

The table below shows the applicability of Windows:

Edition	Windows 10	Windows 11
Home	Yes	Yes
Pro	Yes	Yes
Windows SE	No	Yes
Business	Yes	Yes
Enterprise	Yes	Yes
Education	Yes	Yes

Windows Defender Application Control (WDAC) policies can be managed from an MDM server, or locally by using PowerShell via the WMI Bridge through the ApplicationControl configuration service provider (CSP). The ApplicationControl CSP was added in Windows 10, version 1903. This CSP provides expanded diagnostic capabilities and support for multiple policies (introduced in Windows 10, version 1903). It also provides support for rebootless policy deployment (introduced in Windows 10, version 1709). Unlike the AppLocker CSP, the ApplicationControl CSP correctly detects the presence of no-reboot option and consequently doesn't schedule a reboot.

Existing WDAC policies deployed using the AppLocker CSP's CodeIntegrity node can now be deployed using the ApplicationControl CSP URI. Although WDAC policy deployment via the AppLocker CSP will continue to be supported, all new feature work will be done in the ApplicationControl CSP only.

The following example shows the ApplicationControl CSP in tree format.

./Vendor/MSFT
ApplicationControl
----Policies
--------Policy GUID
------------Policy
------------PolicyInfo
----------------Version
----------------IsEffective
----------------IsDeployed
----------------IsAuthorized
----------------Status
----------------FriendlyName
------------Token
----------------TokenID
----Tokens
--------ID
------------Token
------------TokenInfo
----------------Status
------------PolicyIDs
----------------Policy GUID
----TenantID
----DeviceID

./Vendor/MSFT/ApplicationControl
Defines the root node for the ApplicationControl CSP.

Scope is permanent. Supported operation is Get.

ApplicationControl/Policies
An interior node that contains all the policies, each identified by their globally unique identifier (GUID).

Scope is permanent. Supported operation is Get.

ApplicationControl/Policies/Policy GUID
The ApplicationControl CSP enforces that the "ID" segment of a given policy URI is the same GUID as the policy ID in the policy blob. Each Policy GUID node contains a Policy node and a corresponding PolicyInfo node.

Scope is dynamic. Supported operation is Get.

ApplicationControl/Policies/Policy GUID/Policy
This node is the policy binary itself, which is encoded as base64.

Scope is dynamic. Supported operations are Get, Add, Delete, and Replace.

Value type is b64. Supported value is a binary file, converted from the policy XML file by the ConvertFrom-CIPolicy cmdlet.

Default value is empty.

ApplicationControl/Policies/Policy GUID/PolicyInfo
An interior node that contains the nodes that describe the policy indicated by the GUID.

Scope is dynamic. Supported operation is Get.

ApplicationControl/Policies/Policy GUID/PolicyInfo/Version
This node provides the version of the policy indicated by the GUID. Stored as a string, but when parsing uses a uint64 as the containing data type.

Scope is dynamic. Supported operation is Get.

Value type is char.

ApplicationControl/Policies/Policy GUID/PolicyInfo/IsEffective
This node specifies whether a policy is loaded by the enforcement engine and is in effect on a system.

Scope is dynamic. Supported operation is Get.

Value type is bool. Supported values are as follows:

• True—Indicates that the policy is loaded by the enforcement engine and is in effect on a system.
• False—Indicates that the policy isn't loaded by the enforcement engine and isn't in effect on a system. This value is the default value.

ApplicationControl/Policies/Policy GUID/PolicyInfo/IsDeployed
This node specifies whether a policy is deployed on the system and is present on the physical machine.

Scope is dynamic. Supported operation is Get.

Value type is bool. Supported values are as follows:

• True—Indicates that the policy is deployed on the system and is present on the physical machine.
• False—Indicates that the policy isn't deployed on the system and isn't present on the physical machine. This value is the default value.

ApplicationControl/Policies/Policy GUID/PolicyInfo/IsAuthorized
This node specifies whether the policy is authorized to be loaded by the enforcement engine on the system. If not authorized, a policy can't take effect on the system.

Scope is dynamic. Supported operation is Get.

Value type is bool. Supported values are as follows:

• True—Indicates that the policy is authorized to be loaded by the enforcement engine on the system.
• False—Indicates that the policy isn't authorized to be loaded by the enforcement engine on the system. This value is the default value.

The following table provides the result of this policy based on different values of IsAuthorized, IsDeployed, and IsEffective nodes:

IsAuthorized	IsDeployed	IsEffective	Resultant
True	True	True	Policy is currently running and is in effect.
True	True	False	Policy requires a reboot to take effect.
True	False	True	Policy requires a reboot to unload from CI.
False	True	True	Not Reachable.
True	False	False	*Not Reachable.
False	True	False	*Not Reachable.
False	False	True	Not Reachable.
False	False	False	*Not Reachable.

* denotes a valid intermediary state; however, if an MDM transaction results in this state configuration, the END_COMMAND_PROCESSING will result in a fail.

ApplicationControl/Policies/Policy GUID/PolicyInfo/Status
This node specifies whether the deployment of the policy indicated by the GUID was successful.

Scope is dynamic. Supported operation is Get.

Value type is integer. Default value is 0 = OK.

ApplicationControl/Policies/Policy GUID/PolicyInfo/FriendlyName
This node provides the friendly name of the policy indicated by the policy GUID.

Scope is dynamic. Supported operation is Get.

Value type is char.

Microsoft Endpoint Manager (MEM) Intune Usage Guidance

For customers using Intune standalone or hybrid management with Microsoft Endpoint Manager Configuration Manager (MEMCM) to deploy custom policies via the ApplicationControl CSP, refer to Deploy Windows Defender Application Control policies by using Microsoft Intune.

Generic MDM Server Usage Guidance

In order to use the ApplicationControl CSP without using Intune, you must:

1. Know a generated policy's GUID, which can be found in the policy xml as <PolicyID> or <PolicyTypeID> for pre-1903 systems.
2. Convert the policies to binary format using the ConvertFrom-CIPolicy cmdlet in order to be deployed. The binary policy may be signed or unsigned.
3. Create a policy node (a Base64-encoded blob of the binary policy representation) using the certutil -encode command-line tool.

Below is a sample certutil invocation:

certutil  -encode WinSiPolicy.p7b WinSiPolicy.cer

An alternative to using certutil would be to use the following PowerShell invocation:

[Convert]::toBase64String($(Get-Content -Encoding Byte -ReadCount 0 -Path <bin file>))

Deploy Policies

To deploy a new base policy using the CSP, perform an ADD on ./Vendor/MSFT/ApplicationControl/Policies/Policy GUID/Policy using the Base64-encoded policy node as {Data}. Refer to the Format section in the Example 1 below.

To deploy base policy and supplemental policies:

1. Perform an ADD on ./Vendor/MSFT/ApplicationControl/Policies/Policy GUID/Policy using the Base64-encoded policy node as {Data} with the GUID and policy data for the base policy.
2. Repeat for each base or supplemental policy (with its own GUID and data).

The following example shows the deployment of two base policies and a supplemental policy (which already specifies the base policy it supplements and doesn't need that reflected in the ADD).

Example 1: Add first base policy

<Add>
    <CmdID>1</CmdID>
    <Item>
        <Target>
            <LocURI>./Vendor/MSFT/ApplicationControl/Policies/{Base1GUID}/Policy</LocURI>
        </Target>
        <Meta>
             <Format xmlns="syncml:metinf">b64</Format>
        </Meta>
        <Data> {Base1Data} </Data>
    </Item>
</Add>

Example 2: Add second base policy

<Add>
    <CmdID>1</CmdID>
    <Item>
        <Target>
            <LocURI>./Vendor/MSFT/ApplicationControl/Policies/{Base2GUID}/Policy</LocURI>
        </Target>
        <Meta>
            <Format xmlns="syncml:metinf">b64</Format>
        </Meta>
        <Data> {Base2Data} </Data>
    </Item>
</Add>

Example 3: Add supplemental policy

<Add>
    <CmdID>1</CmdID>
    <Item>
        <Target>
            <LocURI>./Vendor/MSFT/ApplicationControl/Policies/{Supplemental1GUID}/Policy</LocURI>
        </Target>
        <Meta>
            <Format xmlns="syncml:metinf">b64</Format>
        </Meta>
        <Data> {Supplemental1Data} </Data>
    </Item>
</Add>

Get policies

Perform a GET using a deployed policy's GUID to interrogate/inspect the policy itself or information about it.

The following table displays the result of Get operation on different nodes:

Nodes	Get Results
./Vendor/MSFT/ApplicationControl/Policies/Policy GUID/Policy	raw p7b
./Vendor/MSFT/ApplicationControl/Policies/Policy GUID/PolicyInfo/Version	Policy version
./Vendor/MSFT/ApplicationControl/Policies/Policy GUID/PolicyInfo/IsEffective	Is the policy in effect
./Vendor/MSFT/ApplicationControl/Policies/Policy GUID/PolicyInfo/IsDeployed	Is the policy on the system
./Vendor/MSFT/ApplicationControl/Policies/Policy GUID/PolicyInfo/IsAuthorized	Is the policy authorized on the system
./Vendor/MSFT/ApplicationControl/Policies/Policy GUID/PolicyInfo/Status	Was the deployment successful
./Vendor/MSFT/ApplicationControl/Policies/Policy GUID/PolicyInfo/FriendlyName	Friendly name per the policy

An example of Get command is:

 <Get>
    <CmdID>1</CmdID>
        <Item>
            <Target>
                <LocURI>./Vendor/MSFT/ApplicationControl/Policies/{PolicyGUID}/Policy</LocURI>
            </Target>
        </Item>
 </Get>

Delete policies

Rebootless Deletion

Upon deletion, policies deployed via the ApplicationControl CSP are removed from the system but stay in effect until the next reboot. In order to functionally do a rebootless delete, first replace the existing policy with an Allow All policy (found at C:\Windows\schemas\CodeIntegrity\ExamplePolicies\AllowAll.xml) and then delete the updated policy. This sequence will immediately prevent anything from being blocked and fully deactive the policy on the next reboot.

Unsigned Policies

To delete an unsigned policy, perform a DELETE on ./Vendor/MSFT/ApplicationControl/Policies/Policy GUID/Policy.

Signed Policies

Note

A signed policy by default can only be replaced by another signed policy. Hence, performing a DELETE on ./Vendor/MSFT/ApplicationControl/Policies/Policy GUID/Policy isn't sufficient to delete a signed policy.

To delete a signed policy:

1. Replace it with a signed update allowing unsigned policy.
2. Deploy another update with unsigned Allow All policy.
3. Perform delete.

An example of Delete command is:

   <Delete>
     <CmdID>1</CmdID>
        <Item>
            <Target>
                  <LocURI>./Vendor/MSFT/ApplicationControl/Policies/{PolicyGUID}/Policy</LocURI>
            </Target>
        </Item>
   </Delete>

PowerShell and WMI Bridge Usage Guidance

The ApplicationControl CSP can also be managed locally from PowerShell or via Microsoft Endpoint Manager Configuration Manager's (MEMCM, formerly known as SCCM) task sequence scripting by using the WMI Bridge Provider.

Setup for using the WMI Bridge

1. Convert your WDAC policy to Base64.

2. Open PowerShell in Local System context (through PSExec or something similar).

3. Use WMI Interface:

       $namespace = "root\cimv2\mdm\dmmap"
       $policyClassName = "MDM_AppControl_Policies"
       $policyBase64 = …
   

Deploying a policy via WMI Bridge

Run the following command. PolicyID is a GUID that can be found in the policy xml, and should be used here without braces.

New-CimInstance -Namespace $namespace -ClassName $policyClassName -Property @{ParentID="./Vendor/MSFT/ApplicationControl/Policies";InstanceID="<PolicyID>";Policy=$policyBase64}

Querying all policies via WMI Bridge

Get-CimInstance -Namespace $namespace -ClassName $policyClassName

Related topics

Configuration service provider reference